11:45AM CST (Feb 29), 1:45AM (the next day, March 1) Taiwan time

So yesterday we hopped on a plane in Rochester to Chicago, Chicago to San Fran, and now we’re still in the air on our plane that can seat roughly 700 people from San Fran to Taipei.

I just woke up and am trying to be a little productive. I’ve been reading a lot. It’s nice to have such a huge block of time to just read. It’s been kinda weird because our whole flight is “in the night.” There is no daylight because of where we are traveling, when we left, and when we arrive. I guess I’m not missing much more than a huge never ending sea of blue. We left San Fran at 2AM CST (12 San Fran time). We got a meal an hour and a half into the flight, which was pretty spectacular for a meal on a plane – Mandarin chicken with pineapple, a cole slaw with shrimp, a dinner role, some fresh fruit (not canned, fresh), and a little brownie. It did the job.

We all crashed out around 3:30 – 4ish AM CST, I’m not sure when the others woke up. I have a feeling Mike’s been up for a while. Jess is still sleeping right beside me. But check it out – all of us have an empty seat beside us – BONUS! And so that helped a little bit as far as sleeping goes. And I don’t get jealous of short people a lot, but right now I’m jealous of Jess because I am not short, and cannot sprawl out over the seat like she can. When I slept, I looked more like a discombobulated mess trying every 30 minutes to find a new position to get to sleep again.

I’m taking pictures for all to see when I get back.

I’ve been reading a few books. One quote from a book, Seeing God in the Ordinary: A Theology of the Everyday by Michael Frost hit me hard. It doesn’t have so much to do with our trip to Taiwan, as much as it has to do with the Christ-follower’s commissioning that “when you do this to the least of these, you have done it for me,” which does happen in Taiwan, but also across the street, across the yard, across the city, across the dorm hall.

Frost quotes a quote he heard:

“You only love God as much, and no more, than the person you love the least.”

I think this blog entry will suffice for now. That quote is so heavy, I don’t want to write anymore - I’m still thinking about its implications. But I think he’s right, and that scares me and reminds me so much of my sinfulness, the mess I find myself in, and reminds me how hopeless I am apart from the cross of Jesus.

I’ll keep you all in the know as the trip progresses.